Links

About Me

Friday, 6 April 2012

CAP writes to Prime Minister re Jenkins Report and NRC

CAP writes to Prime Minister re Jenkins Report and NRC: http://www.cap.ca/en/news/2012-03-31/cap-writes-prime-minister-re-nrc-and-other-matters-jenkins-report
... "CAP believes that the Report's recommendations regarding the
future of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) are much
superior to those announced by NRC itself. In essence, the Report
recommends continuing but transforming the current NRC Institutes: some
as business-facing industry-oriented non-profit research centres
mandated to undertake collaborative R&D and commercialization
projects with business organizations, some (those currently undertaking
more basic research) as centres engaged in basic research and affiliated
with one or more universities, and some as part of a non-profit
organization mandated to manage what are currently NRC major science
initiatives. In contrast, NRC's proposed changes place a heavy
emphasis on short-term efforts aimed at immediate industrial needs.
There is a role for such efforts, but major contributions to Canada's
economy and wellbeing require deep, world-leading expertise based on
research and expertise built up over many years. NRC has a long history
of such major advances. For example, the critical importance of canola
(developed by NRC in collaboration with Agriculture Canada) to Western
Canada was recently highlighted in the Globe and Mail; according to the
article, canola is responsible for $14B p.a. of economic activity in the
West. Other examples over the years include the development of the
world's first practical electric wheelchair, the first artificial
cardiac pacemaker, the first effective vaccine against infant
meningitis, the Crash Position Indicator, the Canadarm, and Computer
Animation Technology. Compared with NRC's own proposals, the
Report's recommendations seem to us much more likely to preserve the
very valuable, hard-won expertise of the NRC Institutes, and to assist
them to continue to make major long-term contributions from which
industry and all Canadians will benefit. CAP is concerned that the
structural reorganization proposed by the NRC does not sufficiently take
into account the recommendations of the Report and we urge your
government to request that the Report's authors review NRC's proposed
changes before they are implemented."

Here you could learn about Jenkins report and get the full pdf file of the report: http://www.sciencemediacentre.ca/smc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=224%3Aec-oct19&catid=1%3Alatest-news&Itemid=49&lang=en ..."An expert panel convened
by the federal government released their final report Monday on how
effective Canada is at supporting business-oriented research and
development. Chaired by Tom Jenkins, chief strategy officer of Open
Text, the report has several recommendations, including large changes to
the National Research Council. The report can be found online: http://rd-review.ca/eic/site/033.nsf/eng/h_00000.html"
... the summary of the recommendation of the report on NRC:
"Transform the institutes of the National Research Council into a series
of large-scale, collaborative centres involving business, universities
and the provinces. The NRC was created during World War I to
kick-start Canada's research capacity. It has a long and storied history
of discoveries and innovation, including numerous commercial spin-offs.
While the NRC continues to do good work, research and commercialization
activity in Canada has grown immensely. In this new context, the NRC
can play a unique role, linking its large-scale, long-term research
activity with the academic and business communities. The panel
recommends evolving NRC institutes, consistent with the current
strategic direction, into not-for-profit centres run with stakeholders,
and incorporating its public policy research into other departments."
... from the pdf of the full report here is more on what this
recommendation means for NRC: "Canada needs a fundamentally new approach
to building public–private research collaborations in areas of
strategic importance and opportunity for the economy. Accordingly,
we recommend that the business-oriented institutes of the National
Research Council (NRC) should become independent collaborative research organizations, intended to be focal points for sectoral
research and innovation strategies with the private sector. Those NRC
institutes that perform primarily fundamental research would become
affiliates of universities, while those with core public policy mandates
would be transferred to the most relevant federal department or
agency." ..."We believe that public–private research consortia in Canada
lack the scale needed to have significant impact on the development of
globally competitive Canadian companies. Consequently, Canada needs a
fundamentally new approach to building such collaborations in areas of
strategic importance and opportunity for the economy. The existing
institutes of the NRC are a unique asset in terms of infrastructure, talent and sectoral and regional coverage. Consistent with the new direction being taken by NRC management, we believe that several of the
institutes should be evolved to become a core national constellation of
R&D and technology institutes mandated to collaborate closely with
business in key sectors. The appropriate individual institutes could
become focal points for the development of R&D and innovation
strategies for key sectors, for major enabling technologies and for
regional clusters of innovative firms and supporting services."...
"Evolution of the NRC — Charge the NRC to develop a plan for each of its
existing institutes and major business units that would require their
evolution over the next five years into one of the following: (a) an industry-oriented non-profit research organization mandated to undertake collaborative R&D and commercialization projects and
services, funded by amounts drawn against existing NRC appropriations
together with revenue earned from collaborative activities (b) an institute engaged in basic research to be affiliated with one or more universities and funded by an amount drawn against existing NRC appropriations together with contributions from university and/or provincial partners (c) a part of a
non-profit organization mandated to manage what are currently NRC major science initiatives and potentially other such research infrastructure in Canada (d) an institute or unit providing services in support of a public policy mandate and to be incorporated within the relevant federal department or agency."

And here is a bit on the early history of NRC: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/national-research-council-of-canada
"The National Research Council of Canada, federal CROWN CORPORATION
responsible to Parliament through the minister of industry. The NRC was
formed in 1916 as the Honorary Advisory Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research. It immediately funded research committees for
special needs, offered science fellowships at Canadian universities, and
carried out a research inventory (the first statistical review of the
Canadian scientific work force and budgets). Early plans to found an NRC
national laboratory at Ottawa were not authorized until 1928. During
the presidency of H.M. TORY (1923-35), laboratory staff reached 153,
including 54 scientists and research engineers, all but one of whom were
employed in industrial or applied research. Tory's successor,
General A.G.L. MCNAUGHTON, enlarged the staff to 300 and prepared the
NRC laboratories for their central role in war research (from medicine
and food packaging to weapons and synthetic fuels). Under C.J.
MACKENZIE, president from 1939 to 1952, NRC staff reached 2000 and was
reorganized to provide a stronger foundation in basic (pure) SCIENCE.
President E.W.R. STEACIE (1952-62) established the principle that NRC
extramural budgets for university grants and fellowships should rise to
match the intramural budget ($21.5 million in 1962-63) and initiated the
Industrial Research Assistance Program for extramural grants to private
industry (see INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT). Many of the
NRC's functions have been spun off to separate bodies. For example, the
council was the government's general adviser on SCIENCE POLICY from 1916
until the Science Secretariat was created in 1964. Activities initiated
by the NRC and delegated to separate bodies include military research
(to the DEFENCE RESEARCH Board, 1947), atomic research (to ATOMIC ENERGY
OF CANADA LTD, 1952), medical research grants (to the MEDICAL RESEARCH
COUNCIL, 1966), university grants and scholarships (to the NATURAL
SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH COUNCIL, 1978) and the astronaut
program (Canadian Space Agency, 1989). "

No comments:

Post a Comment

About

Welcome to the Future of Neutron Scattering in Canada
a grassroots, nonpartisan movement of ordinary Canadians
that emerged in response to the lack of commitment by federal government(s) to build a new research reactor in Canada for nearly 2 decades.